Thoughts!

This blog is really an informal accounting of daily things. Writing things out in blog form seems to help me clear my head. Lately I have been writing up posts but then never hitting the 'publish' button. Everything seems so mundane. Since we are not focussing on education right now, the days are less complicated and I don't have the drive to record things so that I know what I've done and what I need to do.

That said, I really do need to work on simple household stuff. The 5 areas I could use improvment in:

1) Laundry - we are continually backed up. I start out the week trying to stick to a routine but by Wed, I have sunk back into bad habits. I let things build for a couple days and before I realized it, we have a huge mount washme! So I really need to stick to every day have a particular laundry goal. I really have to start laundry when I first get up and then (and this is crucial!) not forget about it during the day! I had assigned days of the week for each child but I don't know what I did with it. So here's what I recall that seems workable:

M - Hannah
T - William's and Becky's
W - towels, sheets and covers
TH - Josh and Sean's
F - Mine and Rick's
Sa - any catch up laundry or sheets, towels and covers that need to be done
Su - day of rest

I just need to stay mindful of this schedule. I am thinking of posting it on the laundry room door. Perhaps that will help for a bit. Usually I stop noticing things once they've been up for a while.

2) Mail - The first step would be to clear out my in box on my desk. The second step would be to remember everyday to sort through mail and 1) throw out any junk 2) put magazines and catalogs away immediately 3) Put any mail that needs to be attended to in the in box. 4) One day a week; maybe Sat. morning go through the mail and discuss with Rick and then put away. file in study whatever needs to be filed; let him attend to bills; throw out anything that needs to be thrown out.

3)Clutter - the ever-present and ever discouraging existence of clutter on every horizontal surface in our house. I really think that the best 3 things to handle this come from Flylady: 1) declutter hot spots for several minutes every morning and night 2)27 Fling boogie as well as remembering to take out recycling and trash - just getting the stuff out of the house is a major block for me. 3) Zones - systematically moving through the house on a rotating basis and taking care of what needs to be done. Hah! I can dream, can't I????

4) Food - I need to plan and grocery shop more consistently and realistically. I need to be more aware of what I've got in the house. I need to control everybody's out of control snacking. The first step for today (since yesterday I cleaned out most of the pantry) is to really clean out the fridge. It's in a very bad way right now! I have started to tackle that by putting a menu rotation plan along with a list of recipes in my control binder. So maybe I'm moving forward on that!

5) Exercise - I really need to just start walking more. I have done that before. Why can't I get myself into that habit? If I could just successfully get myself doing that, I could then think about other exercise too.

Today I would like to 1) change into day clothes take a walk and say the rosary then come home and shower. Make bacon and eggs for breakfast and clean up right away. I'd like to go to the Tridentine Mass but now I am chickening out. I didn't envision taking Sean with us. I wanted to go first by myself so I can explain things to him. He won't take to it happily without some preparation. I'll have to see how things go. So I don't know what we'll do today for mass. Right now simpler seems better. Then even though it's Sunday I need to work on laundry, clean out the fridge and go grocery shopping. I haven't cooked dinner in two days. Poor Rick is still out of commission with his hurt leg.

Sunday - hamburgers and hot dogs
Monday - french toast and sausage
Tuesday - porkchops in mushroom gravy and rice
Wednesday - bbq chicken in crockpot
Thursday - Broiled fish, potatoes
Friday - pizza
Saturday - chicken dish